Outside The Chute

Episode 82 - Sarah Pauly

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with University of Texas A&M Corpus Christi alum and the All Time Career Wins leader in National Pro Fastpitch League history, Sarah Pauly.
Sarah has had an absolute amazing career.  She set every conceivable pitching record in Texas A&M Corpus Christi school history during her 4 years there, while also becoming an All-American.  From there she went on to an incredible pro career that saw her win two league championships, be named to 8 All-Pro NPF Teams, winner of the 2006 Most Outstanding Pitcher award and as mentioned earlier, she went on to win the most games in NPF history.  Sarah also went on to play overseas in Japan, Italy, New Zealand and Australia where she would also see great success.
Sarah and her dad, Rick, who is a former great Men’s Fastpitch player that played for the Farm, based out of Wisconsin, currently run Pauly Girl Fastpitch High Performance Pitching, where they run clinics all over the US. You can check them out at paulygirlfastpitch.com
We’re gonna talk to Sarah about getting her start in the game, the journey to Texas A&M Corpus Christi, all of her travel stories from her years of playing pro, and of course, Pauly Girl Fastpitch.
Sarah was such a pleasure to sit down and chat with and it was awesome to hear about her journey in our great game.

Episode 81 - Matt Palazzo

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with 2 time ISC World Champ and US Men’s National Team member, Matt Palazzo.
Matty has had a stellar career to date as he is a 2 time ISC All World selection, 9 time ASA All American, as mentioned earlier, a 2 time ISC World Champ with the New York Gremlins and a Pan Am Games Silver medalist in 2019 with the US Men’s National Team.
We’re gonna talk to Matty about growing up watching his Dad play Fastpitch in Iowa, making that transition from Baseball to Fastpitch, , his first impressions of the ISC circuit, of course, being named to the US National Team and much, much more.
Matt was an absolute pleasure to chat with and we shared a lot of laughs in this episode.  Definitely one of the good guys in this game.

Episode 80 - Danielle O’Toole

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with University of Arizona Alum, current Cal State Fullerton Pitching Coach and 2021 Olympian, Danielle O’Toole.
Tooly has had a remarkable career to date.  She earned Mountain West Pitcher of the Year honors in 2014 and Mountain West Freshman of the Year recognition in 2013 while with San Diego State.  After transferring to Arizona, Tooly became one of the best pitcher in the Wildcats rich tradition of great hurlers.  In 2017, she would go on to be named a first team All-American, Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, as well as, one of 10 Finalists for USA Softball Player of the Year.  From there she would go on to be drafted 8th overall into the NPF by the Chicago Bandits and was selected to Team USA where she helped lead the team to a silver medal at the International Cup and a gold medal at the World Cup of Softball.  Tooly most recently competed in her second season at Athlete’s Unlimited, and also, for Mexico at the 2021 Olympic Games where she would post a stellar 1.23 ERA with seven strikeouts and only 3 earned runs over 17 innings of work.
We’re gonna talk to Tooly about getting her start in the game, her time playing under legendary coach, Mike Candrea, the roller coaster ride of emotions to the 2021 Olympics and of course we have to talk about her pets and the sitcom Friends.
Tooly was an absolute pleasure to chat with and I’m so excited to see what’s in store down the road for one of the great one’s in our game.

Episode 79 - Marty Grant

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with 3 time ISF World Champion and Softball New Zealand Hall of Famer, Marty Grant
Marty had an absolute amazing career.  As I just said, he won 3 ISF World Championships with the New Zealand Black Sox in 1996, 2000 and 2004, with the one in 2000 coming from a No-Hitter in the finals from Marty.  He is a 3 time ISC All World selection and also captured the 1996 ISC World Title with the Tampa Bay Smokers.  For all he accomplished in his career Marty was inducted into the New Zealand Softball Hall of Fame back in 2015.
We’re gonna talk to him about getting his start in the game in his hometown of Nelson, coming over to North America to play on the ISC circuit, those memorable ISF wins with the Black Sox, and much, much more.
Marty was such a pleasure to chat with.  As someone who watched him from a far over the years it was really cool to be able to sit down and talk with an absolute legend in our game.

Episode 78 - Kristyn Sandberg

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with University of Georgia Alum, and current Assistant Coach at Hofstra University, Kristyn Sandberg.
Kristyn has had a fantastic career as she spent her undergraduate career at the University of Georgia and was named a second-team NFCA All-American after garnering first-team All-Region honors. She played a key role in leading the Bulldogs to the Women's College World Series in 2009 and 2010 while earning SEC All-Freshmen Team honors in 2009 and First Team All-SEC recognition in 2012.  She would go on to be drafted 5th overall in the 2012 NPF Draft by the USSSA Pride where she would become a two time NPF Champion.  Kristyn appeared in over 300 games in the NPF and was a consistent threat throughout her career as she recorded over 45 home runs and tallied 150 RBI. For her efforts, Kristyn collected several awards from the league, including NPF Miken Rookie of the Year accolades in 2012, All-NPF honors in 2015 and 2018, was a Rawlings Gold Glove Finalist in 2017, and also, earned an NPF All-Decade Team distinction.
She now finds herself in the coaching ranks with stops in LSU, Syracuse and now with Hofstra
We’re gonna talk to Kristyn about getting her start in the game, her decision to attend Georgia, her time in the NPF, her love for the New York Islanders, and much much more.
Kristyn was an absolute pleasure to chat with, Hofstra definitely has a good one on their hands.

Episode 77 - Kelsey Harshman

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with University of Wisconsin alum and Canadian Olympic Bronze Medalist, Kelsey Harshman.
Kelsey has had a fantastic career to date. She played collegiately at the University of Wisconsin, helping the Badgers to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2017 and 2018. She started in every single game throughout her four years, setting school records in all-time runs (180), on base percentage (.527), and consecutive games on base (40). She was the first freshman at UW to be named to the All-BigTen team, as well as the first three-time selection to the All-BigTen team in school history. She was also named to the 2017 All-BigTen Defensive Team.  Kels made her debut with the National Team in 2015 as a member of the Canadian Junior Women's National Team at the WBSC World Championship in Oklahoma City. Since then, she has represented Canada at multiple international events, including the Olympic Games this past summer in Tokyo where they took home the bronze medal.
We’re gonna talk to Kels about getting her start in the game, the influence her mother and aunts played in her development, her time with the Badgers, of course, the bronze medal win in Tokyo and much, much more.
Kelsey was an absolute pleasure to chat with and I’m definitely looking forward to what she has in store moving forward with everything she does.

Episode 76 - Jeremy Spear

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with the creator of Fastpitch the Movie himself, Jeremy Spear.
Jeremy got into the game of Fastpitch after playing Baseball growing up, which included 4 years at Yale where he would play Division I with the Bulldogs. Later on down the road after spending time on the New York Art scene, the competitive juices for sport were missing and he jumped into the game full force and decided to document that journey which resulted in the creation of what we all know as Fastpitch the Movie.
We’re gonna talk to Jeremy about getting his start in the game, how big of an adjustment there was going from baseball to softball, the epic NCAA pitching dual between Frank Viola and Ron Darling that he was a part of and, of course, all the ins and outs of the movie that he created.
It was an absolute pleasure for Hopey and I to talk to Jeremy as he played a huge part in this game at showing everyone just how the game was back in the 90’s with his documentary.  We’ve said it on here many times.  If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and do so!

Episode 75 - Shane Hunuhunu

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with former Ashland Merchant and one of the star’s from Fastpitch The Movie, New Zealand native, Shane Hunuhunu.
Shane was a force on the ISC circuit back in the 90’s while playing with Ashland, Ohio, terrorizing opposing pitchers with his heavy bat.  He was selected to the ISC All World Team back in 1992 in his very first ISC World Tournament.  Huny also captured the 1989 ISF World Junior Title in Summerside, PEI while competing with New Zealand.
We’re gonna talk to Shane about getting his start in the game back in New Zealand, moving to the US to play on the ISC circuit and of course, all about the Fastpitch Movie made by next week’s guest Jeremy Spear.
Huny was a treat to chat with and his very personable attitude shines through in this episode.  It was a pleasure for Hopey and I to chat with such a great guy from our game.